Your Task. Revise the following statements to imply the bad news. If possible, use passive-voice verbs and subordinate clauses to further de-emphasize the bad news.
Direct refusal: We cannot send you a price list, nor can we sell our lawn mowers directly to customers. We sell only through authorized dealers, and your dealer is HomeCo.
Implied refusal: Our lawn mowers are sold only through authorized dealers, and your dealer is HomeCo.
We cannot ship our fresh fruit baskets c. o.d. Your order was not accompanied by payment, so we are not shipping it. We have it ready, though, and will rush it to its destination as soon as you call us with your credit card number.

The best revision of the statement to further de-emphasize the bad news is:

When trying to de-emphasize bad news while making use of implied refusal, one can make use of strategic positioning to push the bad news in a place where it is not emphasized.

Here, the sentence was revised so that the user could be aware that his order was completed but can only be validated with payment so that his goods would be delivered to him promptly,

Read more about direct refusal here:

link

Answer and explanation:

There are different techniques used to lower the impact of bad news. Among them, we can identify positioning the bad news strategically (usually at the end of the message), using the passive voice, accentuating the positive, implying the refusal, and suggesting a compromise or alternative.

While using passive voice, the subject is depersonalized by making the action be what matters in the message. In some cases, the use of passive voice is accompanied by a subordinate clause (sentences that require another to make sense). Therefore in the example, the segment:

can be turned into:

a dunce cap for you, you assed this 2 weeks ago

answer; whoever is willing and able to pay the price;